Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 78.djvu/201

Rh Let us now consider the effect of a cross-wind. Suppose the wind is blowing from left to right, then, if the ball is pulled, it will be rotating in the direction shown in Fig. 26; the rules we found for the effect of rotation on the difference of pressure on the two sides of a ball in a blast of air show that in this case the pressure on the front half of the ball will be greater than that on the rear half, and thus tend to stop the flight of the ball. If, however, the spin was

that for a slice, the pressure on the rear half would be greater than the pressure in front, so that the difference in pressure would tend to push on the ball and make it travel further than it otherwise would. The moral of this is that if the wind is coming from the left we should play up into the wind and slice the ball, while if it is coming from the right we should play up into it and pull the ball.

I have not time for more than a few words as to how the ball acquires the spin from the club. But if you grasp the principle that the

action between the club and the ball depends only on their relative motion, and that it is the same whether we have the ball fixed and move the club, or have the club fixed and project the ball against it, the main features are very easily understood.

Suppose Fig. 27 represents the section of the head of a lofted club moving horizontally forward from right to left, the effect of the impact will be the same as if the club were at rest and the ball were shot